Story Highlights

The Doctor is in again — Doctor Fate, that is — although the man under the trademark helmet might need a psychiatrist sooner than later.

One of DC Comics' most famous magic men is at the center of the new "Tower of Fate" story line beginning in issue 10 of Earth 2, available Wednesday digitally and in comic shops. Writer James Robinson and artist Nicola Scott take Khalid Ben-Hassin on a journey to take the mantle of the superhero all the way to the realm of the god Nabu, with the Flash, Hawkgirl and the Flash's mom along for the supernatural ride.

And instead of Khalid just putting on the headgear and being heroic, Robinson promises an ordeal for him that's more a rite of passage and something that in itself is a brave act.

"It's very magic and very different from the feel of the first eight issues," he says, "but that's where I want Earth 2 to be: a book that you never quite know where it's going to go or what kind of villains or threats the heroes will be facing in the future.

Earth 2 No. 9 acted as a prologue to the next story arc and introduced Khalid and his upcoming importance to the lives of the book's characters. While Robinson has put his own spin on old Justice Society of America heroes like Jay Garrick's Flash and Alan Scott's Green Lantern for this alternate version of the regular DC Comics Earth, he felt there could be a totally new person under Doctor Fate's Helmet of Nabu since there have been several versions of the character since 1940.

Kent Nelson was the original guy bestowed powers from the god Nabu, but Robinson defies the most ardent Golden Age comics fan to tell him what that Fate's personality actually was. "There was never much done with who Doctor Fate was. Kent Nelson always seemed somewhat stoic or even statue-like."

Robinson tweaks familiar characters on a monthly basis in the alternate universe of Earth 2. And, as he's done with the Atom and others, the writer has created a personality that combines traits of all their predecessors in DC history. In Khalid's case, he doesn't even want to be Doctor Fate.

"He's scared he's going to lose his wits — more so when he puts on the helmet — but he does it out of duty and bravery," Robinson says.

Nelson also plays a role, albeit posthumously — he raised Khalid and played an important role in the youngster's past.

"You know how sometimes people by being dead they're more interesting to the story than if they were alive?" Robinson says. "Kent Nelson will have that role, and there will be a mystery about Kent's death that we will get into down the line as well."

DC asked Robinson when he came on Earth 2 to make the book feel more multicultural and bring in more races and countries — thus why there is a world army on this parallel Earth — and he thought it was finally time to have an Egyptian guy wearing the helmet of an Egyptian god.

However, he also worried about offending people, Robinson says. "It's not like I know a huge amount of Egyptians, so having him raised by an American, he hasn't forgotten where he's from or the country of his origin, but it's just giving me that little bit of wiggle room where I could make him a little bit more Western (and) makes me sure I don't turn him into some kind of ridiculous caricature."

Robinson is also tapping into the world of ancient Egypt to showcase Doctor Fate's magic.

One aspect that has always frustrated the writer about magic character is that, up until now, magic never really had a cost, he says. "When you show it in comic books, although you call it magic, it feels and certainly looks no different than a blast of energy from Green Lantern's ring. It's just energy that gets fired."

Doctor Fate, redesigned by Brett Booth, plays a major role in the upcoming story line in DC Comics' "Earth 2" series.(Photo: DC Comics)

When fans have seen Doctor Fate in the past, when he shoots bolts of magic, sometimes artists would toss in an Egyptian ankh symbol for effect. But when he delved into the world of Egyptian magic, Robinson realized a lot of it was evoking the power of the gods, and that in turn will influence how he writes Doctor Fate and others in Earth 2.

"In issue 14, there's the Egyptian god of the soil and the earth, and he uses tendrils coming out of the ground to drag down his enemy," Robinson explains. "So when you see a spell like that, that god won't be floating there big and bright, but subtly in the magic, the symbols and the icon of this god or that god depending on the spell.

"It gives all the spells an individual quality and just makes him as a magician in this world of DC magicians — and there's quite a few of them — to stand out and have his magic look different and apart."

Scott has been drawing these gods with their glyphs and totems, and she says she's been "raiding all my art and architecture books looking for references from around the world and through history" for the Tower of Fate, the structure's origin and how it has been corrupted by Nabu's magic.

"It's a place of the highest magic that's seen better days. The inside was crazy to draw but turned out really well," the artist adds.

Scott also redesigned the old green-skinned Doctor Fate villain Wotan for the arch-enemy's Earth 2 reintroduction. Wotan has for the most part been a male baddie, although Scott depicts the character as a woman, much as she first appeared back in 1940.

"While re-familiarizing myself with Wotan's past looks, there was something that struck me about his origin that I felt hadn't been addressed visually before: He's lived many lives over a few millennia, appearing as either gender over and over," Scott says.

"I felt by now he might have become a bit gender neutral, rather androgynous. His odd skin color is the only real thing we kept, and it's part of the story."

Robinson, who borrowed liberally from the feel of David Bowie in the movie Labyrinth, feels Wotan's at the point in life where sexuality isn't really much of a concern anymore, somewhere between male and female in terms of mind-set.

"We haven't seen that before and it's an interesting difference in point of view for a character rather than being a hero or villain," he says.

"One of the things about Wotan is that she can remember every single incarnation — when they die, they're reborn, and they can remember every single aspect of their past lives. It's like their memories have an immortality where their bodies are going back and forth between male and female."

While Earth 2 No. 10 dives into the coming of Nabu, what Wotan's motivations are and how fate — the term, not the character — has tossed Jay Garrick into this situation, the story line also will explore the mystery of who killed Sam, Alan Scott's lover, and that will be lead into another major arc starting with a big, shocking ending to issue 12.

An all-new Batman debuts in May's "Earth 2 Annual."(Photo: DC Comics)

As for other major players coming up, the Earth 2 Annual debuts an all-new Batman of Earth 2 — the trio of the world's Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman all seemingly perished in the first issue — who will be a huge ongoing presence in the book. And Sonia Sato, a major in the World Army with serious martial-arts skills who did a nasty spin kick on the Flash in issue 9, is "a big, big part of stuff I can't even talk about yet in the Earth 2 world," Robinson says. (Pre-"New 52" relaunch, Sato was a member of the JSA as Judomaster.)

Jay Garrick will also continue to be the emotional core of Earth 2, and he'll be crucial to the origin of this new Doctor Fate plus act as courageous inspiration for Khalid.

Robinson enjoys writing the interplay between Garrick and his mother and "the idea of taking your mom to work and how excruciating that must be to somebody," but he steps up for his mom and Khalid "in a way that is consistent with a brave but slightly innocent heart that Jay Garrick has," Robinson says.

"That to me is the essence of the character that's been around since 1940. I'd really like to preserve that and even though he may eventually get better with his powers, he'll always be the guy who's looking for the good in the situation and in people and himself."